It's maybe a bit harsh to refer to Manchester United's current manager as Jose van Gaal but the statistics are beginning to look particularly damning.

Saturday's soulless goalless draw against West Brom was the eighth time in 15 Premier League matches that United have been held at Old Trafford this season/ Hull, Burnley and Bournemouth are among the other “giants” to have left with a point.

United hogged 75% possession but mustered only three shots on target with it. Fifth place now looks by far the likeliest finish for Mourinho – exactly where his criticised predecessor finished 12 months ago.

Jose Mourinho is left with a face of thunder on the sidelines as his side struggle to break down visitors West Brom

Former United keeper Ben Foster hurls himself to the floor to deny Armenian star Henrik Mhkitaryan

Claudio Yacob keeps his eye on the ball as he tries to track back to challenge Marouane Fellaini

Applause rings out for Wayne Rooney as the iconic striker gets set to come on as a late substitute in the clash

Jesse Lingard holds off his counterpart Hal Robson-Kanu and attempts to surge through the midfield

But his starting line-up still cost more than £200milliion and afterwards the United manager appeared to blame his young, attacking front four of Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Jesse Lingard for not winning the game.

Ben Foster's two important saves both came from long-distance Rashford efforts. The teenager hasn't scored a league goal since September though and rarely made the runs into the box that No9s should.

One centre from Lingard fizzed across the six-yard box with nobody there to get a touch. Ibrahimovic would have been there for a tap-in and the Swede will be welcomed back with open arms against Everton on Tuesday having now completed his three-match ban.

'We have had a lot of this, total control but the goals didn't come,' grumbled Mourinho afterwards.

'Sometimes because the goalkeeper was magnificent, deja vu, other times because not score a goal even one on one. It was a game that we totally deserved to win.'

Mourinho then gave up the pretence of trying to protect his flair players, delivering some withering remarks aware that United's 19-game unbeaten run has seen them only climb from sixth to fifth because of two many draws.

Antonio Valencia uses his power to burst through Baggies duo James McClean and Allan Nyom out on the wing

Teenage striker Marcus Rashford plucks the ball from the air as a cluster of West Brom shirts gather to dispossess him

Ashley Young doesn't hold back as he hurtles into a challenge on West Brom's Republic of Ireland star James McClean

The linesman gets a good view of play as Robson-Kanu looks to take on United's Argentina international Marcos Rojo

Rojo goes down under the strong challenge of the Welshman who then marauds forward with the ball

'At some clubs, talent is always welcome even if it's not consistent. One day yes, one day no. For teams at this level if you want to win things, you need to be consistent.

'Today for 90 minutes, Valencia was consistent, Rojo, Bailly, Young, Fellaini, Carrick. The other ones were not consistent. It was a falsh of talent, a glimpse. Almost a goal, but we need to kill opponents.'

West Brom have had a good season under Tony Pulis and arrived at Old Trafford with three United old boys in their ranks; Foster, defender Jonny Evans and stalwart Darren Fletcher in midfield.

Nobody was surprised by the way they set up, getting every outfield player behind the ball bar Hal Robson-Kanu and even he wore the No4 shirt.

Pulis said afterwards: 'When you come up against clubs with more money and talent, you have to be organised.' And Albion were.

United failed to register a shot on target in the first hour and their only genuinely near thing came when Martial rose well at the far post and headed Lingard's cross wide, receiving a bruise on his cheek from Craig Dawson as a result.

United throw all their men behind the ball as Chris Brunt lashes an direct free-kick towards goal

A full house in the Sir Bobby Charlton stand watch on as United threaten their visitors with a menacing attack

Rooney shares a laugh with Dutchman Daley Blind on the substitute bench as Mourinho watches over the action

Mourinho jots down notes during the first half as his side struggle to find their clinical edge on the field

Anthony Martial towers above the Baggies defence with an athletic leap to go close with a header

The West Brom defence can only watch on as Martial wins the header and was unfortunate not to score

The intensity increased after the interval with the Stretford End riled by a waist-high challenge by Allan Nyom on Michael Carrick.

Marouane Fellaini arrowed a shot wide, Mkhitaryan finished weakly in front of goal with only Foster to beat and then Rashford was denied by a flying stop from the 'keeper. The youngster then took over free-kick duties and sent a 25-yarder towards the top corner until Foster sprung to his right to palm away.

Unusually Pulis made all three of his substitutions before the 70th minute before Mourinho had moved a muscle. He eventually sent on Rooney who got a large ovation from the home fans but aged 31 he is no longer the match-winner of old.

Inplausibly, it was the visitors who came closest to scoring late on. Fletcher tried a potshot from 25 yards which David de Gea caught with hands above his heads before spilling the ball onto the crossbar where it bounced to safety.

Van Gaal became a figure of fun towards the end of his reign for pouring out excuses for poor results and dreary performances.

As former United players didn't hold back on in-house television station MUTV about a disappointing afternoon, Mourinho mentioned referee Mike Dean had played into West Brom's desire to waste time and praised his team's defensive organisation – against a team that didn't want to attack.

Tony Pulis wastes no time in barking out commands across the field to his West Brom players at Old Trafford

Mkhitaryan puts former United man Darren Fletcher under pressure in the early stages of the match

Rooney looks focused during the warm-up after being named as a substitute for the Red Devils once again

A United fan takes a snap of Old Trafford as the players warm up, revealing a phone case sporting the legends of yesteryear

Aware that United's goal tally of 42 is at least 10 fewer than any of the other top-seven teams, he said. 'Somebody who saw that would think we are a defensive team, a counter-attack team that doesn't have ambition. But it is completely the opposite.

'Rashford, Lingard, Mkhitaryan, Martial, see how may goals they score. Zlatan and (Juan) Mata are the ones with more goals. If it wasn't for them the situation gets even more difficult.'

Zlatan and possibly Pogba should be back for Everton. Alas, Mata will remain sidelined for some time yet.

By the time they kick off on Tuesday night, United could seven points adrift of a top-four place, depending on Manchester City's result against Arsenal on Sunday.

Increasingly, the Europa League looks like being the key to United's campaign. Imagine if that had happened to Van Gaal.